The invention is directed to a portable exercise device that allows for vigorous exercising by persons not able to afford expensive equipment or do not have the time to use facilities at a club or gym. Further, the invention is also directly suited to persons who find it difficult or undesirable to exercise o heavy cumbersome and complicated exercise equipment, such that the invention allows for relatively simple and uncomplicated exercising with substantially the same benefits accruing thereby as compared with these heavy and cumbersome prior-art apparatuses. In particularity, the present invention allows one to simulate jump-roping without the need of a jump rope, with all of the concomitant beneficial results, or to simulate only the arm movements of jump-roping alone without movement of the legs.